Flash Kaylene Klingenstein Sasha Frankhouser

What can you do with it? MAKE YOUR OWN! Animated movies Web-based banner advertisements Games Web-based applications Special Effects

Examples Animated movie clip Web-based banner advertisements Games Web-based applications w_src.html

Basics Adobe Flash refers to the Adobe Flash Player and multimedia program, which creates animation, games, movies, etc. Available in most web browsers Uses vector based graphics (won’t lose clarity of image with sizing) Scripting language ActionScript

Flash files --.swf extension May be implemented in several ways: Object of a webpage Played in the Flash Player Self-executing Flash movie Can have user interaction

What is Action Script? Java-like object-oriented scripting language Creates most of the interactivity in Flash apps First introduced in 2000 with Flash 5 Adds interactivity to applications Predefined constants ENTER, BACKSPACE, SPACE, TAB

Example ActionScript Code onClipEvent(load) {function reset() { if(this._name=="face") { this._visible=false; } else { this._visible=true; } this.dead=0; this.speed=random(4)+3; this._x=600; this._y=random(400); } this.reset(); } onClipEvent(enterFrame) { this._x-=this.speed; if(this._x<-40) { this.reset(); } }

History Started with the FutureWave Software company members who specialized in vector-based web animation tools The first model “SmartSketch” became “FutureSplash Animator” Offered to Adobe, used by Microsoft 1996 officially introduced as Flash 1.0 Updated Macromedia Flash version released each year until 2000 In 2001, of the 10 biggest websites, 7 used Flash Now up to Flash Player 9 in 2007, and Flash CS3

Future developments Using Flash with handheld devices Option to require an ad to be played before main video is played (good for video sites) Being considered a viable addition to the capabilities of a browser

Free alternatives Gnash – under development

UIRA, Openswif Open source, creates flash development environment

Drawbacks If not installed, users cannot access some Flash-dependent sites Used in aggressive online advertising Tools can permanently turn Flash Player off in some websites

How does it compare?

Why Flash is better Basically, it condenses several programs into one. In Flash you can: Draw your shapes/objects Edit your code See it played (preview it before running it) Edit timeline of events Save it as a.swf file

Putting.swf in HTML FLASH <object classid = "clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d- 11cf-96b “ codebase = " > GET FLASH!

Questions?